Texas House hopeful says rival lives outside district

By Josh Baugh :
July 20, 2012
: Updated: July 20, 2012 11:49pm

Former City Councilman and Texas House District 117 hopeful Phil Cortez alleged during a news conference at his Southwest Side home Friday that opponent Tina Torres lives in Stone Oak, far outside the area she's campaigning to represent.

Cortez announced that his campaign had hired a private investigator to trail — and videotape — his opponent after persistent rumors that she didn't live in District 117.

“My opponent decided that the state election laws don't apply to her and her candidacy,” Cortez said.

Property records show she owns a home in the Gold Canyon neighborhood, a short distance from the Stone Oak area. Neither Torres nor her campaign manager could be reached Friday for comment.

But she does live in District 117, said Annie's List executive director Robert Jones, whose organization has endorsed Torres. Her boyfriend and her brother live at the home she owns, he said.

“It's just not the case,” he said of Cortez's assertion. “Tina's residency meets the spirit and the letter of the law.”

Cortez said he has not filed an official complaint but wants the voters in the district to decide Torres's fate.

Cortez and Torres will face off for the District 117 Democratic nomination on July 31. Early voting begins Monday.

Before Cortez's news conference began, several police officers appeared at his front door in the Liberty Village subdivision, summoned to the neighborhood for a reported riot. One cop said it obviously wasn't a riot — it was a protest — and allowed a gaggle of Annie's List members to hold signs and chant from across the street.

Upset that Cortez had arranged to have their candidate filmed, the protesters shouted: “Stand with us! Don't stalk us!”

One woman held a sign that asked, “How many women have you filmed, Phil?” Another sign read, “Desperate. Shocking. Creepy.”

Inside, Cortez campaign workers hastily made their own arsenal of signs — including “Our votes cannot be bought and $old,” and “These people from Stone Oak need to leave our neighborhood” — and then stood in the front yard, timidly exchanging chants with those across the street.

Soon after, Cortez spent 15 minutes sitting on his living room sofa before a bank of television cameras explaining that his opponent is attempting to “use” the residents of District 117 to gain a seat in the Texas Legislature.

His private investigator's video, and that of an “independent third party,” which was actually a WOAI-TV Trouble Shooters' hidden-camera investigation, apparently show Torres spending the night in the Stone Oak home.

Jones said he and his Annie's List members were appalled that Cortez was “secretly filming” Torres.